Apr
23
2009
Jonathan graciously dropped me off at Charles de Gaulle in the morning and I was on my way. Contrary to some of the reviews I have read on the net, I did not find CDG to be a confusing airport to get around. The only complaint I had is that they did not have any departure/arrival monitors anywhere in the gate area and since I had checked in the day before, I had to track someone down to ask where exactly my flight was leaving from. I was still very tired after spending almost entire 36 hours awake, eight of them tracking around Paris with my backpack, so as soon as we took off, I passed out.
I woke up just as we were descending off the coast of Marseille and the view was amazing. I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of Calanques, Vieux port, and everything else. The airport was nice and spacious and the lady at the info desk was pretty helpfull getting me a bunch of brochures and telling me where to catch the bus to town. The bus cost 8 euros and took me to the central train station. My hostel was supposedly right next to it, but it still took me a good half hour to find it because of the confusing street layout… The Vertigo hostel itself was not bad with a couple (paid) computers and a nice kitchenette including a couple small fridges, dishes, pots, etc. Once I got into my six person room, I met my first roommate - an elderly woman from Oregon. She gave me some pointers on what to do and what to see and so off I went.
The weather was beautiful with a rare cloud overhead. I walked down to the visitor information place next to the Vieux port and grabbed some maps. I spent the rest of the time walking around the port, the fortress, and the old neighborhood before returning to the hostel. By that time everyone else was back. My other roommates were a guy from Colorado, an Italian guy that did not speak much English, another girl from US, and Lucy from Prague. Me and Lucy hit it off right away and decided to go to a grocery store to grab some stuff for dinner and breakfast next morning. Afterwards we met up with Nat and Claire from couchsurfing who took us to a bar on the north side of the Vieux port. We were sitting upstairs sipping beer while the breeze was blowing throw the window with the port and the Notre Dame de la Garde lit up in front of us. It was simply an amazing moment. Afterwards Nat and Claire dropped us off at the hostel and we had another round of Heineken before hitting the sack.
The rest of my 12 Days in Europe posts:
no comments | posted in Calanques, Couchsurfing, France, Marseille, Marseille Provence, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Vieux Port
Apr
22
2009
I met up with Christopher at Charles de Gaulle and we took a train to get into the city. He is from Iowa and is spending a year studying in France so he took a day off and came to Paris to hang out with me. Our first stop was the famous Notre Dame de Paris. We took some pictures but could not get inside beacuse of my backpack. I also learned quickly that when someone asks you if you speak English, it is a good idea to pretend you do not. Otherwise they show you something scribbled in English basically begging for money. I thought it was kind of weird. At least learn a sentence, do not write it out for me…
Anyways, we walked along the Seine towards the Louvre. We took some pictures with the famous Pyramide de Louvre at the entrance but did not go inside since I only had a day to spend in Paris. From the Louvre, we walked through Jardin des Tuileries and had a quick lunch there. We kept on walking towards the Arc de Triomphe along the Avenue des Champs Elysees where I took the most expensive dump in my life (I think it was two and a half euros…) and also bought a SIM card for my phone at a Virgin store. The arc was ok, but nothing too special, there is a 8 euro charge to get on top so we decided to skip that since we were going to the Eiffel Tower next.
We took a quick ride on the metro and got in line to go up the Eiffel Tower. After waiting in line for half an hour they almost kicked me out since my backpack was pretty large but then let me through anyways. While we were waiting in line, we were watching cops on bikes trying to catch the African kids bugging all the tourists with cheap souveniers. Another half hour later we got on the elevator and went up all the way to the top of the tower. The view was very nice. I liked the old streets and the buildings, all of the same height everywhere with a few skyscrapers in the distance. We went around and took some pictures, then did another round at a lower floor and got back down. We rested for a little bit at Parc du Champs de Mars.
After that we decided to go walk around the streets of Paris, so we crossed Seine and walked toward the Maison de Balzac on Rue Raynouard. It was already closed for the day so we just kept on walking. It was interesting to see chestnut trees blossoming everywhere, it reminded me of Kiev in May time frame… We walked past Maison de Radio France and finally found a metro station. Christopher had to go to catch his train and I jumped on the metro to go meet up with Jonathan.
Jonathan messaged me on couchsurfing when I posted to the pilots group asking if anyone wanted to go to fly with me while I was in Europe. He offered to take me up and so I went out to Cergy Pontoise just outside of Paris to meet up with him. We flew in a Dimond Star out of Aerodrome de Pontoise Cormeilles. As soon as we took off, he offered me to take control and so I did. D40 has a stick instead of a traditional yoke, but it did not take long to get used to it. The plane was very resposive and simply a joy to fly. Outside the window we watched Paris light up at night and the Eiffel Tower lit up in the distance. Simply amazing!
By the time we put the plane away and got out of there, it was almost midnight and since I was in the mood to get some real French food, Jonathan took me to a restaurant close by the Arc de Triomphe. The food was not anything special, the wine was pretty good, but neither justified the price tage - 150 euros for two is probably the most expensive dinner I have ever had. It was followed by a night drive tour of Paris, but I started passing out in the car so we went back to Jonathan’s for the night.
The rest of my 12 Days in Europe posts:
no comments | posted in Arc de Triomphe, Couchsurfing, Eiffel Tower, France, Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Seine River, The Louvre
Apr
21
2009
That took a while! I did not pack until the last moment, so I only had a couple hours of sleep the night before. My flight was not leaving until after 10, but I could only get a ride to the airport before 8 so I spent a couple of hours there and then I had another five hour wait at Detroit. My flight to Amsterdam was on a Northwest 747 and I was hoping it would be the newly painted bird in Delta colors (see the youtube video of the paint procees). I did see it at a gate, unfortunately it was going to Tokyo. To add insult to injury, it actually just came back from Amsterdam! Oh well, I went to the gate area and tried to catch some naps. An hour before boarding, I got up and walked around from one end of Concourse A to the other end and back so get some exercise before the eight hour flight.
Once we boarded the plane, the captain came on and told us he had good and bad news. Oh-oh… The good news was that we would have a strong tailwind getting there sooner. The bad news was that Schiphol had a curfew so we could not get in early. We ended up sitting on the ground in Detroit for about an hour before pushing back. This was my first time on a 747 and the take-off roll seemed to take forever, followed by a very shallow (what it seemed) climb out. Thankfully, I was able to get a seat by the exit door so it was pretty comfortable less the galley right next to me. I had some wine with my dinner and soon dozed off for a little bit.
The approach to Amsterdam was pretty cool, flying over a wind power generator farm off the coast and then all the fields and canals. Normally on smaller airplanes you can feel the configuration changes when they lower the flaps or dump the landing gear. Not so on this bird - everything was so smooth and unnoticable up until the touchdown and roll out. When we were deplaning, I went upstairs to get a picture with the flight deck for my first 747 flight. The crew was very nice and was telling me how these are “small hops” for them (normally 747 go to Asia).
I had a two hour layover in Amsterdam, and it took me almost all that time to make it through the customs, get the ticket for my next flight, and make my way around the airport. My first impression of Schiphol was that it was kind of confusing, but I made it where I needed to be and boarded the Air France flight to Paris. It was an A321 in their international configuration (with middle seat seatbacks folded down to create a sort of a table in the first dozen of rows or so… weird). There were probably 50 people at most and I got a full row all to myself. We were served breakfast made of a couple of croissants and tea (no OJ!). The flight was uneventfull and I just could not stop thinking how can they afford to have five or six flight attendants on board, in addition to having two people at each gate in Amsterdam, even if it was a long time before the flight. Here in US you are luck if you can find the gate agent half an hour before boarding…
The rest of my 12 Days in Europe posts:
no comments | posted in Amsterdam Schiphol, Detroit Wayne County, Paris Charles de Gaulle
